The oil and gas sector has long suffered a negative reputation — traditional extraction and production methods have contributed heavily to Canada’s carbon footprint through the emission of methane gas and other air pollutants — but exploration and production (E&P) companies and cleantech startups are working to fix this.

E&P companies have been actively reducing their methane emissions with clean technology solutions. Canada’s cleantech industry now ranks fourth-highest globally and first in the G20. In January, the Canadian government pledged to invest $700 million in cleantech over the next five years. Canadian cleantech businesses were already booming, accounting for 3.1 per cent, or $59.3 billion, of our GDP.

Technological innovations will continue to enable the oil and gas industry to become greener in several ways, including:

Decreasing freshwater usage

Like all major energy production methods, oil extraction is made possible by water. In the oil and gas industry — which accounts for 10% of Alberta’s yearly water allocation — water is used to separate crude oil from other elements in the oil sands. The industry has been recycling the majority of this water for decades (roughly 80 to 95 per cent each year) but in an effort to further improve, cleantech companies have begun to rethink the extraction process and its relationship with water altogether. Imaginea

, for example, uses its Clean Hydrocarbon Ecosystem to deliver energy produced with the use of zero freshwater and with no toxic emissions or air pollution.

Increasing transparency through data

One of the results of a national focus on transforming the oil and gas industry is increased transparency. The oil and gas sector accounts for nearly eight per cent of our country’s GDP. Working to improve such an important industry is difficult because we must simultaneously consider our environmental health and our wealth as a nation.

Technology has also furthered industry transparency. Montreal-based GHGSat, for example, can track global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from any industrial site in the world using a high-resolution satellite. This technology, more accurate and affordable than its alternatives, enables E&P companies to better understand, control and reduce GHG emissions.

Manitoba-based HD-Petroleum, for example, has created small-scale waste-oil micro-refinery units that transform used oil into diesel fuel. The cost of implementing this technology is relatively inexpensive and the recycling process substantially reduces GHG emissions when compared with more traditional oil disposal methods.

Equipment-selling platforms like Fuelled also increase the industry’s recycling capabilities by enabling E&P companies to sell their new and used idle equipment online. Energy equipment is expensive and has a long lead time, so during times of high commodity pricing, E&Ps often stockpile to meet expected demand. Using this sort of reselling tool, oil and gas producers are able to give old equipment new life.

Streamlining/improving processes

Cleantech is not simply meant to make the oil and gas industry greener, it is also meant to make the industry better. If new technologies do not have the same — or improved — outputs, it is unlikely they will be implemented.

There are countless Canadian companies whose innovative technologies are both green and effective. Three such examples are Aimsio, a digital ticketing software that streamlines field operations by enabling users to file reports, dispatch resources and track project progress all from one central location; DarkVision, which developed a new ultrasound technology that allows companies to create 3D images of the inside of oil wells, enabling them to make more informed and cost-effective production decisions; and Unsist, which uses artificial intelligence to help oil and gas companies make better production and operational choices.

• Raj Singh is the CEO and founder of Fuelled, an online energy equipment marketplace that has more than $100 million in oil and gas equipment holdings.